Sweet Dreams Discourage Inflammation

Do you consider sleep to be part of your self-care regimen? Does a spinning wheel of thoughts keep you from restful sleep, or do you consciously sacrifice sleep time? If so, you are not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic with an estimated 25% of the United States population suffering from some type of sleep disturbance.

Effective self-care involves rejuvenating the body, clearing the mind, and invigorating the soul—all benefits of getting adequate sleep. As oncology nurses, we teach our patients about sleep hygiene (see sidebar), but how often do we take our own advice?

What Research Tells Us

Research reveals a connection between inflammation, oversleeping (more than eight hours), and sleep deprivation (less than seven hours). Conclusions from a meta-analysis examining the impact of sleep-wake cycle disturbance and too much sleeping on C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels indicated that oversleeping and sleep-wake disturbance were associated with increase in CRP and IL-6, and short sleep duration produced a rise in IL-6 only. Increased serum inflammatory markers, specifically CRP and IL-6, can lead to depression, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and obesity (Irwin, 2015).

Another meta-analysis showed that waist circumference was greater in people who slept less than people who were normal sleepers (researchers did not define “short sleep duration” or “normal sleep”). Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are some of the risks associated with high levels of adipose tissue around the waist.